Lorica
by Mendeia
Summary: Shuu is just trying to get some homework done. Shin has other plans...and a secret to confess. Good thing Shuu is an awesome friend. Not OVA-compliant. Please note that this was written as a gift, so the names are consistent with the original anime rather the dub: Shuu Kento, Shin Cye, Seiji Sage, Touma Rowen, Ryo's the same.


This was a Yuletide gift for Ryuutchi, crossposted here.

The title is taken from a poem/prayer known as Saint Patrick's Breastplate. If the religiosity of that irks you, I actually know these lines better from a song called "Lorica" by Joan Szymko, which is a welcome to the sun and the elements. A "lorica" is also literally a piece of armor, so I thought the connection was appropriate.

Enjoy!

* * *

 **Lorica**

 **The splendor of fire,  
The flashing of lightning,  
The swiftness of wind,  
The depth of sea,  
The stability of earth…  
-From Saint Patrick's Breastplate**

Shuu was bored.

He was _supposed_ to be studying, of course. Good grades don't just make themselves, and high school was proving to be more frustrating than an endless pack of Dynasty warriors. And, while he was all but guaranteed to take over as head of the family clan someday, he still wanted to have the marks to prove himself to be worthy of Grandfather's trust.

Even so, Shuu would gladly take the Dynasty over any more reading assignments.

Had it really been a year since their last battle against Arago?

They had seen one another since then, for celebrations or birthdays or weekends free from other commitments. But those gatherings of the five who were more than friends, who were battle-tested brothers, were becoming fewer and fewer as the weight of high school and a life beyond bore down upon them.

Fighting evil was easy compared to the terrifying prospect of growing up.

Shuu sighed and rubbed both hands through his hair. Maybe he should go make himself a snack. Or take a walk. Or do some laundry. Literally anything other than the reading before him.

Then there was a tap on his window.

Shuu turned, surprised. His room was on the second floor, and the garden trees were all out back.

The tap repeated, and this time Shuu spotted the pebble that dropped out of sight after bouncing lightly off the glass.

He jumped up from his desk and pushed the window open, leaning out.

Only the reflexes left over from a year of battle saved him from being hit in the nose by a third pebble - he snatched it out of the air just in time.

"Sorry!"

Shuu took in the familiar figure below and grinned. "Shin!"

"It's a good thing you opened your window." Shin was smiling up at him, and Shuu could read the light of amusement in his eyes even from the second story and across the front yard to the sidewalk. "Otherwise, I was going to have to consider trying larger stones!"

"I have a phone, you know." Shuu folded his arms on the window-sill and leaned on them lazily. "In fact, I know you know. You called me on it just last week."

Shin gave an unapologetic shrug. "Surprise!"

"I could have been not home. Or busy." It had been too long since Shuu had been around someone who could actually tease him back properly. "I could still be busy, too busy for whatever you have in mind."

"You could be, but you aren't!"

"Are you so sure about that?"

"I certainly am."

Shuu dropped the pretense of reluctance at the smirk on his friend's face and straightened back up. "I'll be out in a minute."

In reality, it took him less than a minute to abandon his schoolwork and his bedroom, storm downstairs, shove his feet into shoes, bellow some kind of explanation to whoever was home - _heading-out-back-later-save-my-dinner-bye!_ \- and charge out the door and down the walk to where Shin stood, checking his watch with a raised eyebrow.

"Thirty-eight seconds. I think that's a new record, Shuu."

Shuu pounded him on the back in greeting. "I've been practicing."

"Apparently." Shin gave him a real smile before starting to lead the way down the sidewalk.

"So." Shuu settled at Shin's shoulder as if he had never left. "Where're we going? Not that I'm not glad to see you. You just saved me from...I don't know. Some kinda poetry or something."

"Well." Shin's voice was light, but there was a note under it Shuu noticed, though he couldn't quite pin it down. "I was feeling rather cooped up, and it's always better to enjoy an afternoon with a friend, isn't it?"

"Definitely." But Shuu looked more closely at Shin. "Is there...something going on?"

For the first time, Shin looked at Shuu and their eyes really met. Shin's eyes were deep as his oceanic affiliation, and could conceal at least as many secrets; Shuu had learned early on that Shin regularly concealed any hint of his inner thoughts by adding a distracting sparkle of humor to his gaze. But this time the humor was absent, and the depths were cloudied.

"Something like that."

Then Shin smiled again, and the churning waters retreated behind the habitual sparkle Shuu knew he was only permitted to see because they were friends - and because Shin trusted Shuu with every fiber of his being. As Shuu trusted him.

"We'll talk later, okay?"

And it wasn't really, but that was what Shin needed, so Shuu just nodded.

"Sure."

-==OOO==-

Later, Shuu would not really remember the details of how they'd spent that afternoon or where they'd wandered. It had probably involved food, because why wouldn't it involve food, and it had probably involved wanton silliness in an arcade somewhere, and therefore it had probably involved the pair of them laughing like fiends and acting entirely unlike a pair of young men who had saved the world a few times over. However the afternoon passed, it lived in Shuu's memory as a pleasant impression of a carefree time with his best friend.

But when they made their way to a quiet park out of the bustle of the city, when Shin sat down on a bench facing a roaring fountain and turned his fathomless eyes on Shuu, all that haze vanished.

"Thanks for coming out with me today," Shin said. "I really do appreciate the company."

"Not a problem." Shuu angled his body so he could see the paths in Shin's blind-spots with the same instinct he had covered his friends' backs in countless battles. Whatever happened next, Shuu knew it was not for strangers to overhear.

Shin took a breath, giving the barest nod of acknowledgement at Shuu's positioning. Then he turned his eyes to the fountain.

"Do you remember when you and Seiji and I were...when Arago captured us?"

Shuu nodded. "Of course I do."

It wasn't something they really talked about, and certainly not in front of Ryo and Touma. Ryo and Touma knew enough - knew that they had been made to suffer, and had resisted Arago's power, and had eventually been drained almost to the point of no return. The three of them had known that Ryo and Touma were fighting to reach them, were risking everything to save them, and hadn't wanted to add to the burden of the two who had faced so many battles on their own.

But that time bound in Arago's power, surrounded always by evil and darkness and pain, was not easily forgotten. Time had lost all meaning - they hadn't known if they had been there hours or days or years. Pain, when it came, was sharp and unhealing, lacing directly into their nerves and souls. And the draining and fading, the _unmaking_ of all that made them human until their spirits were all but gone, that had been the worst of it all.

When it was over, when Touma came and poured his power into them, finding the scattered bits of minds and hearts wasted almost to nothing and reviving them, they had returned to themselves and to Ryo and Touma smiling. They had engaged in battle as though nothing had changed, and even their eyes seemed clear and at ease.

It was the only way they could repay Touma and Ryo for their lives - to spare them knowing what they had been saved _from_.

Even long after, when the world was safe and Arago gone forever, they hadn't discussed it. What was there to say, exactly? They knew what had been, they knew what they had seen and felt and barely survived. And they knew that those wounds were theirs to carry, alone and in secret, to give the lasting memory of Arago and his evil no more power over them.

However, now Shuu was seeing a twitch in Shin's shoulders he didn't like, and a hesitation in his voice, and Shin had stopped meeting his eyes.

"Shin," he began, "if you…"

"I've been dreaming about it."

Shuu stopped, swallowed. Shin's voice was calm, still, and icy. Shuu had to fight to unstick his throat to ask, "Dreaming what about it?"

"That I'm back there again. That all this, the last year of peace, it was nothing but another illusion. Except this time, you're not there. Neither is Seiji. It's just me in the dark. And I'm...I'm almost gone again."

Shuu had no idea what to say. He could barely move.

Shin's hands clenched into fists as his eyes stayed resolutely turned towards the fountain.

"And it's worse because I can't feel the other armors anymore. I can't sense you, or Ryo, or the others. No matter how bad it got last time, I could always sense you and Ryo. Ryo because of the Inferno, I think. You because...you were always there. But...you're not. None of you are."

Shuu broke his paralysis with a will and put a hand on Shin's shoulder. "I _am_ here. I'm here right now."

Shin dipped his head. "I know." He reached into his pocket and withdrew something, held tight in his hand.

But suddenly Shuu could sense the faint tug of connection which could only mean Shin was holding his armor's talisman.

"It's strange." Shin's voice went lower still. "All that time we were fighting, I just wanted it to be over. I never really wanted to be the one the armor chose for all this. I wouldn't...I wouldn't have walked away, not when I was needed, but I wanted it to be over so I wouldn't have to fight again."

He rolled the talisman between his fingers, the symbol of his virtue flashing momentarily.

"But sometimes...I think I miss it. I think I miss…"

"Knowing you aren't alone."

Shin looked up at Shuu in surprise. Shuu shrugged.

"What makes you think you're the only one that feels that way?" Shuu smirked. "It was the end of the world and everything was about to fall apart, but yeah. It was the safest I've ever felt, because I knew I wasn't in it alone. I knew I had the four of you at my side, no matter what."

Shuu glanced at Shin and made a rueful smile.

"That's why I went with Rajura even though I could have beaten him. Because you and Seiji were there, and I knew you needed me."

"Ryo and Touma needed you," Shin said, frowning, and at last he was finally looking directly at Shuu. "If you'd stayed, you could have helped them."

"If I'd stayed," Shuu said firmly, "then that would have been one less person fighting Arago's dark, and you and Seiji would have been pulled in that much more quickly. You know it took all three of us to hold out for as long as we did."

Shin closed his eyes and nodded.

"Listen." Shuu waited until Shin opened his eyes again. "I understand. I've had a few of those dreams, too."

"I know."

Now Shuu was surprised. "How do you know that?"

Shin gave a tiny smirk of his own. "What makes you think you're the only one that feels that way?" He threw Shuu's own words back in precise imitation. "But...it's more than that. What we all used to feel when we were in the armors together...it's never really gone away for me."

Shuu blinked. "You can feel when we're having nightmares?"

"Yes. And when any one of you is happy, or frustrated, or lonely." Shin held up the talisman. "Even if I'm not carrying it with me. Even when I leave it at home for the day. It's not as strong as it was, but if I'm listening for it, I can tell."

"How is that even possible?"

"Well...water connects things. And water isn't just lakes and the ocean - it's the blood and tears and sweat we shed, too." Shin tipped his head. "I keep meaning to ask Touma if he ever has something similar, because sometimes he calls me in the middle of the night when I haven't gone to bed because I don't want to dream, just to talk for a while, or so he says. It makes sense. Water is to emotion what air is to thought."

"So what am I?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure about Seiji and Ryo, either."

Shuu considered that, then decided to focus on the more immediate problem before him. "Why didn't you tell any of us this before?"

"Tell you what? That I can feel what you're feeling, that I know when you have nightmares that wake you tensed and ready to fight for your lives? That I know when Seiji is preparing for a difficult bout, or Touma has seized upon a new problem to solve, or Ryo is having fun, or you are tired of doing homework?"

"Yes. All of it." He paused, then added, "And Touma, if you actually _can_ tell what we're thinking, you're in big trouble the next time I see you for keeping that _and_ this to yourself."

"Don't blame him," Shin said. "I'm the one who didn't want to talk about it."

"Why? Because you're ashamed that it makes you feel better?"

"That. And that I didn't want you lose your trust."

"Now, that's just stupid."

Shin's eyes widened and the sea in them roiled and churned.

"What?" Shuu tightened his grip on Shin's shoulder. "You think we would be bothered? Seriously? After everything we've been through? I mean, I'll admit, it's going to be awkward if any of us starts dating or something."

Shin blushed suddenly and Shuu charged on before he could think too hard about the implications of that.

"But I already told you. Whatever else was happening, I've never felt as safe as I did when I could sense the four of you in the back of my heart. If you still have that, and if it helps you, then why would we be upset by it?"

"Other than it being a monstrous invasion of privacy?"

"Yes, other than that."

"Because I shouldn't…"

"If you finish that sentence," Shuu said, letting a low growl enter his tone, "I'm going to dunk you into the fountain. Shin, listen. You were there for me when Arago's darkness got to me. You kept me from going insane in there. You kept Seiji from forgetting who he is. And if anybody is going to tell you that you should be ashamed of this, of something you can't even help, then they're going to answer to me."

A rush of tension went out of Shin like a broken water balloon and he sagged against Shuu's grip.

"Thank you."

Shuu nodded. "You're welcome. So...what? You've been having dreams that get to you, and you can tell that we were dealing with it better than you?"

"No." Shin shook his head. "I think we're all dealing with it about the same. But when I have those dreams...it's when I'm cut off from the rest of you. And I can't feel anything anymore."

"Oh." And Shuu understood. "And you're afraid that might really happen."

"Yes." The word blew out of Shin like a gust of air.

"Hmm." Shuu made sure Shin was propped up by his shoulder so he could cross his arms and think. "I mean, it's been a year. If it hasn't gone away by now, I'm not sure why it would."

"The armors never really do play by rules that make sense, though."

Shuu snorted. "True. But...there's one rule they never really break."

"Oh?"

"They're always connected." Shuu nudged Shin. "From the very beginning, they were always bound to one another. And so are we. All five of us. No matter where we go in life."

"And you think that will be enough?"

"To keep us all connected through whatever mystical something you've got going on? I don't know for sure. But I do know it will keep us all connected one way or another. Even if we all have to take turns calling you in the middle of the night so you know you're not alone facing those dreams."

Shin let out a breath. "Will it make any difference at all to you if I say I don't want to become a burden?"

"No, because you aren't and you couldn't be."

"Or that I'm sorry I waited so long to tell you?"

"No, because I'm just glad you felt like you could tell me eventually, and I can understand why you didn't."

"Or that you're a truly good friend, Shuu?"

"Well, _that_ you can tell me!" Shuu grinned. "No objections here!"

Shin chuckled. And finally the sound was right to Shuu's heart, and the ocean in Shin's eyes was calming again, no longer the turbulent storm of before. It hadn't yet regained its seafoam laughter, but at last the waters were clearing.

Shin nudged him with an elbow. "Never change, my friend. Never change."

"Believe me, I have no intention of it."

Then Shin stopped and looked at him. "I think that's yours."

"Hmm?"

"If I can sense our feelings, and Touma our thoughts...I think you know when we are the most ourselves. I think you help ground us, shelter us from doubts, keep us rooted in truth. I think…" He glanced away. "I think that's how you can always tell when one of us is bothered. You're not sensing our feelings like I do - you're able to tell when we've come adrift and lead us back."

Shuu felt his face redden. "I'm not sure about all that."

"Well, I am." And now Shin faced him, and Shuu could tell he was once again entirely at ease within himself.

And he realized that Shin was probably right, too.

"Well, that's okay then." Shuu couldn't help but smile to see his best friend looking like himself once more. "We're all still watching each other's backs, right? In different ways, but we're still doing it. And...maybe we should do more of it. I think...maybe we should talk to the others and see if Ryo and Seiji have anything like this. So we can all keep looking out for one another."

"I think you're right," and Shin began to shake his head, smiling, "because I have to tell you, Touma feels _unbearably_ smug right now."

"Seriously, Touma, you and I are going to have _words_ when I see you."

Shin laughed. "Technically, only he needs to have words with you. You can just think at him, apparently."

"Oh, I'm _thinking_ all right."

"I can tell. I'm just as glad I can't hear the words, because I'm sure they're rude."

" _Very_ rude." And Shuu grinned.

Shin nodded. But his eyes took on a faraway look as he tipped them up to the sunset sky.

"I wonder if this will change things. It could drive us apart, I suppose, but I think it's more likely that it's going to draw us together again in the end. More than the Armor of Inferno did, maybe. Our own armors needed us to be aligned to our guiding virtues in order to remain strong and pure. I think...maybe this is the armors' way of keeping us aligned, not just to our elements and virtues, but to each other. So that we're ready the next time something happens."

"Maybe." Shuu had never been good at that sort of mystical speculation - he mostly left it to Seiji and Touma and Shin while he and Ryo went and found something more active to do. But he couldn't help but sense a certain rightness to what Shin was saying. "And maybe nothing bad will ever happen again and we'll never need the armors as long as we live. But that doesn't mean we don't still need to watch out for each other. It doesn't mean we shouldn't keep being a shield for each other."

"Exactly."

A shield for each other. He'd said it without really thinking about it, but it rang in his mind with a truth and rightness. Maybe, just as the armors protected them while they protected the world, this would let them spread themselves across each other's hearts, weave a blanket of friendship and brotherhood and trust that would guard against the pains and doubts of the world.

A different suit of armor, united, and powered by their five spirits in one.

Shuu glanced at Shinn and saw the same thought, and the same relief, shining back at him.

"And who knows?" Shuu stretched widely. "Maybe someday this connection thing will get big enough that Touma could take all my exams for me, or I could take control of Seiji's feet when he's doing that silent thing and he would make some noise for once and quit sneaking up on people."

"I think Seiji might object rather strenuously to that."

"Yeah, but he could challenge me and I could keep him from moving and then I could wipe the floor of his whole dojo with him. Let's be honest, that's the only way I'm ever going to be able to beat him if we're fighting on his terms."

"Can't you just challenge him to some arm-wrestling or something and be done with it?" Shin asked.

"Where's the fun in that?"

"Of course. My mistake." But he grinned as he said it. "Forgive me if I privately hope you do _not_ attain the ability to control our actions from afar. Or else be prepared to be inundated with the most annoying feelings of boredom I can invent."

"So...still an improvement over poetry."

"Speaking of which." Shin rose from the bench. "I should probably return you to your homework. I know I disrupted your day, and I'm grateful you took the time to talk with me."

Shuu rose, too, but surprised Shin by pulling him into a fierce hug.

"Don't ever be sorry for asking me to be your friend. 'Cause I'm glad to do it, any time." He drew back, but kept his grip on Shin's arms. "And don't sit up nights waiting for Touma to call you. If you don't want to sleep, call me. Seriously. I can wake up for five minutes if it will help you get some rest."

Shin made a wry smile. "I'm not sure you really can."

"Ha! Try me and see!"

"I will." And the promise was as sincere as Shin's eyes.

-==OOO==-

They walked back to Shuu's house, chatting and joking, and Shuu couldn't help but feel how clear the air was now, how certain and settled everything felt. Shin really was onto something with this interconnectedness between them now. Every light-hearted word, or snarky word, that passed between them was proof of all that should be, and Shuu was determined to keep his friend, all his friends, with their spirits firmly anchored where they belonged.

After Shin said goodbye at his front door, Shuu grabbed the dinner that had been saved for him and retreated to his room with it. He didn't really want to get back to studying, but it was still early enough in the evening that he could get at least something done if he focused on it.

But first - there was a new email in his inbox.

It was from Touma. And it merely said:

 _Good job. And I'll figure out when we can all get together for a while - it's past time we talked about this with everyone._

 _Call me if you want help with your poetry assignment._

 _P.S. That's not anatomically possible._

Shuu sighed and thought _very loudly_ at Touma, while also admitting to himself that he would probably make that call sometime - he did have a genius for a friend and Shuu was not too proud to make use of his brain when it came to homework. But not tonight.

Tonight, Shuu leaned back in his chair and considered.

Remembered the time with Arago, and the battles he had fought with four friends-and-brothers at his side.

Thought about what it might mean to know at least two of the four could tell when he was afraid, or angry, or confused. Could tell when he had his own nightmares, or dreaded his own isolation.

And decided that this was a pretty good reward for saving the world after all.

The world, even without demons and monsters and evil powers incarnate, was a difficult, sometimes unkind place. The virtues that defined the five of them were sometimes in short supply, and people who acted like they belonged in Arago's service were everywhere. It was a looming reality of growing up, of standing in the world not as a warrior and not as a kid, but as a man.

And Shuu was lucky enough to be able to face it with four people he trusted with everything at his side.

If they really were connected, if their spirits and minds were united by more than intent and friendship, that connection would be their new armor, a shield against the world. And this time, that armor would be born not from evil and cruelty, but from brotherhood and loyalty and courage and trust. That armor would wrap around their minds and souls, and would give them refuge and strength when the world became their battle.

And Shuu would be there to fight it with all four of them, without fail, to the end.

That, at least, would be a very useful remedy for boredom.


End file.
